The websites of candidates running for president 20 years ago are unbelievably bad

These days, presidential campaigns are all about Snapchat as a way to reach voters. Before that, politicians embraced social media like Facebook and Twitter.

But one consistent aspect of political campaigns over the past 20 years has been the humble candidate website. As a place to sign up new volunteers, solicit donations, and lay out a policy platform, an old-fashioned website can't be beat.

And through the years, candidate websites have come a long way, from basic HTML and GIF affairs to fully featured web applications. They've also picked up some of the most annoying things about the web, like full-page takeovers asking you to sign up for a newsletter.

1996: Republican candidate Bob Dole, famous for saying "the internet is a great way to get on the net," had a high-tech — for the time — website with regular updates, although the last time it was updated was November 5, 1996.

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Amazingly, it's still online — and it's not a mirror, either. Visit it here.

This is his platform on tech issues. He addresses strong device encryption — claiming that his opponent, Bill Clinton, wants to put "big brother" in your computer — which is still a hot topic today given the battle between the FBI and Apple.

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1996: The Bill Clinton campaign had an advanced website for the time, too. Yes, that modem next to Bill is a GIF that flashes, and yes, you can listen to a message from "inventor of the internet" and then Vice President Al Gore if you had the right plug-in.

Websites were new enough that Clinton's campaign had to explain them in a handy FAQ. Netscape Navigator was the preferred browser.

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Today, websites can identify your location through IP addresses and other methods. But back then, users had to provide that information.

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2000: Al Gore was proud of his contribution to the technology that eventually turned into the internet. So it's logical that his website was fully featured with a lot of multimedia, including downloadable video, although at the time slow dial-up connections made streaming video impossible.

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Gore's page even had a proto-Twitter feature that let his campaign comment on debates in real time.

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2000: George W. Bush didn't have a website as advanced as Gore's, but he did have a video player called GwB TV with three "channels."

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Bush's website went through several revisions during the campaign, according to 4President.us.

2004: Democratic candidate John Kerry embraced the design conventions of the time and used a firm column-oriented design. By this point, a campaign website was obviously an essential tool for reaching voters.

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At the time, Kerry was a pioneer when it came to soliciting donations online. Kerry raised over $12 million, which was a record at the time.

2004: Wired said that Bush's online effort for his reelection campaign was "innovative" and in some ways ahead of Kerry's digital operation.

Barack Obama was still years away from running for president, but in 2004 he had a website for his US Senate run in Illinois. Sadly, many of the images on the site now appear as broken graphics. Only -4,373 days until victory!

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2008: Four years later, his website for his presidential run was a lot slicker.

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Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign is remembered for thoroughly and enthusiastically embracing technology and building many tools that are still used today.

2008: According to Pew Research, for much of the campaign Obama "enjoyed a clear advantage" over John McCain. Although McCain's site eventually added a social network, Obama's page still boasted three times as many unique visitors per week.

Here's one sign that the McCain campaign might not have been as web-savvy as Obama: "Print this page and share."

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2012: Barack Obama had to change his domain name because he had given his old one to the Democratic Party. His campaign went with the slick, glossy, almost-wet look that was popular at the time.

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2012: Mitt Romney's page was pretty standard fare for the time, but his campaign accidentally leaked a website that had been prepared in the event that he beat Barack Obama, referring to "President-elect Mitt Romney."

2016: Today, campaign websites are as slick as anything else on the web. For example, Hillary's 2016 site follows current web trends, starting with the full-page takeover begging for your email address.

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Plus, designers have learned that less text is more effective on the web.

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And Hillary's site can now tell where in the US you're visiting from.

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2016: Here's Republican frontrunner Donald Trump's current website.

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But Trump's real website is his platform on Twitter, where he has over 6 million followers.